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Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) is boycotting Sunday’s general election because they found no scope to rig the polls. Hasina said the BNP had tried to foil the 2014 parliamentary election through violence but failed.
“Now they are out to thwart the 12th parliamentary election slated for January 7 for which they are once again burning people to death through arson violence and subversive acts,” she said.
“Now BNP-Jammat is trying to foil the poll and snatch away your vote through arson terrorism,” the official BSS news agency quoted Hasina, who is also the Awami League (AL) chairman, as saying while addressing a rally .
She said that every voter with their near and dear ones should go to the polling centre in the morning and exercise their franchise to give the opposition BNP “an appropriate answer”.
Urging the people to remain alert against the BNP-Jamaat clique Hasina said: “You will cast your vote and make sure none can prevent you from casting your voting rights.” Hasina is the longest-serving prime minister of Bangladesh with the first term from 1996 to 2001, and three consecutive terms from 2009 to 2014, 2014 to 2019 and 2019 till date.
Hasina said her party has established the voting rights of the people and called upon the new and young voters to cast their vote for ‘Boat’ — the ruling party’s election symbol — to continue the country’s development.
The 76-year-old Awami League President said: “I call upon the youth folk and new voters to vote for the Boat to continue the country’s journey towards development.” “Bangladesh has emerged as a developing country, transforming it into a digital nation. If Awami League is voted to power again, it will help take forward Bangladesh towards a developed, prosperous and Smart Bangladesh nation in 2041,” she said.
Introducing all 15 AL candidates of Dhaka, Hasina sought votes for her party’s electoral symbol ‘Boat’ and described it as the symbol of development, peace and prosperity.
“Boat had earned the country’s independence and saved mankind from the great storm during the period of Nuh Nabi (AS),” she said.
Coming down heavily on those who blamed the AL for vote manipulation, Hasina said her government needed no vote rigging to assume power as they had won the hearts of the people by working for the welfare of the country and its people.
“The Awami League government has made the Election Commission independent so that it can conduct elections freely,” she said.
The BNP led by former prime minister Khalida Zia has called for civil disobedience against the Hasina-led dispensation, urging people not to pay taxes and utility bills to press its demand for a non-party interim government for election oversight by amending the country’s Constitution.
The BNP is boycotting the election after its demand for an interim non-party neutral government to organise the voting was rejected by the government. The party had boycotted the 2014 election but took part in 2018 polls, which party leaders later said was a mistake alleging that the voting was marred with widespread rigging and intimidation.
